Berto Jongman: IMF – Debt Crisis Looms

A poisonous “triad” of global risks is pushing the world to the brink of a new financial crisis, says stark IMF report

“Three percent of global output is at stake”.

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Phi Beta Iota: It is much, much worse than this. $30 trillion is at risk, in our view, perhaps more. The risks are of three kinds: a) collapse of stock markets that finally fail to recover — the end of the casino; b) infrastructure attacks that are crippling and exact a social and economic cost beyond imagination; and c) outright arson against physical assets by mobs that arise spontaneously around the world but especially in the UK, Germany, Spain, and the USA. Governments are in denial and their ability to understand revolutionary preconditions is roughly that of a five-year-old illiterate. Combined with the lack of integrity inherent in all governments, we do not see great prospects for inspired ethical leadership. On a more positive note, were electoral reform to be achieved in the USA, and an honest government elected in both the executive and the legislative branches, then evidence-based strategy, policy, acquisition, and operations — combined with an Open Source (Technologies) Agency — could flip the tortilla quickly and and inexpensively. Tipping points go both ways. We pray for the positive turn.